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Published online 31 July 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/454675b
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Nerve cells made from elderly patient's skin cells
Reprogrammed cells may offer insight into neurodegenerative disease.
Skin cells from an elderly patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have been 'reprogrammed' to generate motor neurons, the type of nerve cells that die as the disease progresses.
It is the first time that an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell line has been created from a patient with a genetic illness ("J.
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How can a transformed cell tell the normal pathway of a disease??? As I have stated many times (http://im1.biz/Cloning.htm ) that iPS cells are transformed stem cells or incorrectly programmed stem (iPS) cells because they are infected not only by virus but also over-loaded with oncogene(s) delivered by the virus. Then how could such abnormal cells from a normal or abnormal person be used to tell the normal pathway of physiological or pathological process?/// Even if the abnormality of the physiology or pathology can be better understood in the Petri dish, these abnormal cells are still not suitable for therapeutic use as they are cancer-causing cells as shown in all of the iPS reports so far./// So my warning is: do not hype too much on the incorrectly programmed stem (iPS) cells./// Shi V. Liu (SVL@logibio.com; http://im1.biz; http://blog.sina.com.cn/im1)